[Book Sip] The Horrible Earth of 2053... The Prophecy of the Honeybee

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This is the new novel by world-renowned bestseller author Bernard Werber. It tells the story of the protagonist Ren? Toledano, who, after witnessing Earth in 2053?a time when bees have disappeared and humanity faces extinction?struggles across time and space to change the future. The future Ren? visits 30 years ahead is shockingly depicted as a winter with extreme global warming, temperatures soaring above 43 degrees Celsius, and a global population reaching 15 billion. With bees gone, food shortages spark riots everywhere. In the previous work, Memory, Ren? Toledano explored 'Who am I?' by retracing human history and meeting his past lives; this time, he turns his gaze to the future and asks, 'How should we act?' Werber, who previously examined the past from a micro perspective of individual lives, now seeks answers from a macro historical viewpoint on the path 'we,' that is, 'humanity,' should take.

"Eighty percent of the plants humans consume are flowering plants. And about 80 percent of the pollination of these flowering plants is carried out by insects, specifically bees. Meanwhile, bees have been gradually disappearing while the population has been increasing at a frightening rate. People believed that manual or robotic pollination was possible, but the results were disappointing. A small cause ultimately led to a fatal outcome, causing a sharp decline in global agricultural production. With rising temperatures, grain production decreased further. Desertification accelerated on the earth's surface, and water shortages worsened, making irrigation costs too high for farmers to afford. To make matters worse, locust swarms ravaged farms in Africa, Asia, and South America. When food is scarce and the population grows, it is inevitable and irreversible that hungry people will riot. Protests erupted worldwide and were suppressed mercilessly." - Volume 1, page 69

Wax has endured the passage of time. Bees produce a substance that lasts 900 years...

Ren? shines a flashlight close to the beehive.

He takes a knife from his pocket and carefully peels off the orange wax layer.

It is as hard as caramel and as transparent as glass.

Looking inside the peeled wax, he sees bees trapped inside, fossilized. One of them looks noticeably larger and plumper than the others. - Volume 1, page 299

"Did you know? In AD 30, when Daniel predicted the coming of the Messiah using the image of a giant with feet of clay, more than 170 people in Jerusalem claimed to be the Messiah. All of them were competitors to Jesus Christ."

Menelik looks at Ren? and Alexandre and says,

"What was the reason Jesus won among so many competitors?" - Volume 2, pages 31-32

"Eighty percent of all plant species require bees for reproduction. The disappearance of bees will bring about an enormous environmental disaster whose impact we cannot predict. China has already attempted to replace bee pollination with artificial pollination using humans or robots, but the efficiency was terrible. Saving bees is not just one of many environmental issues. It is a struggle for our survival." - Volume 2, page 221

The Prophecy of Bees | Written by Bernard Werber | Translated by Jeon Mi-yeon | Open Books | 368 pages | 16,800 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.